Madrasas, not only in Muslim rule but also in British as well as secular and Independent India, have been of great importance and value for both Muslim and non-Muslim communities. They had never been out of mainstream in Islamic and British India. On every stage of life and in every field the madrasas played vital role. Madrasas had been the centers that enjoyed heavy influence on every class of the society. They have not distanced them from any matter whether it is related to Muslim community in particular or to the country in general.

Centres to Preserve Islamic Identity

First of all madrasas helped Indian Muslims to maintain their identity and entity as Muslims. Had their not been madrasas the Hindu-rooted Indian culture would have been assimilated Muslims far before in its folk. But by the grace of madrasas, Muslims not only managed to preserve their Islamic identity but also they influenced the Indian culture and made it a good synthesis Indo-Islamic culture. After the colonial occupation of the English and abolishment of educational institutions, Muslims feared that they would lose their Islamic assets and would either fall prey of western culture or merge in to majority. This time also, it was madrasas that came to rescue. And now too when the wind of globalization is blowing very fast Muslim community all across the world has no alternative for madrasas and Islamic institutions.

“The Deeni madaris in India in the last 200 years have played a role, which has no parallel in history. When the British imperialists occupied this country, they drove away the Muslim not only from the seats of political power but also from other areas of influence. The Christian missionaries mounted a ruthless assault on Islam and the Muslim, in the subcontinent. In those turbulent times, the problem of maintaining and deepening the Islamic identity of the recently converted Muslim masses was a formidable task. And this task fell upon the ill-organized and poor Ulama in the country. History bears witness to the creditable manner in which the Ulama not only checked the inroads being made by the British masters and Christian missionaries in to the cultural life of Muslims but also prepared a generation of freedom fighters.” [1]

“The Indian Muslims were also experiencing serious danger to their faith and culture from the majority Hindu culture ‚ along with the threat of western culture, a product of globalization. The way out Muslims in India thought was to establish their ancient Islamic institution of Madrasa on large scale for the teachings of Islamic fundamentals. The Madrasas have been considered by the Indian Muslims as Centres to enclave and exclude the Islamic Identity and culture from the colonization by the non-Muslims culture.” [2]

This is the reason that intellectuals like Allma Iqbal have said “Let these maktabs as they are. Let the poor Muslims’ children study in these madrasas. Had there not been these Mullahs then what would have been, do you know? Whatever will happen I had all seen by my own eyes. If the Indian Muslims are deprived of the influence of these madrasas they will face situation like that of Muslims in Spain where in spite of 800 year Muslim rule one does not fine even a trace of Muslims except the monuments of Cordoba, Granada and Al-Hamra. Similarly, In India also we will find a trace of Muslims except Taj Mahal in Agra and Red Fort in Delhi.” [3]

National Affairs

It is needless to mention the great contribution that madrasas have given in the cause of freedom struggle. From 1857 to 1947 they never compromised with the British government and always held aloft the torch of freedom. It is now a known history that madrasa people not only participated enthusiastically in the 1857 revolution but also they led the movements at various places. Reshmi Rumal Tahrik (Silky Handkerchief Movement) was purely an Ulama-based movement. Jamiatul Ulama Hind, which came in to being in 1919, was the largest platform for Ulama. It was Jamiatul Ulama Hind that cooperated the nationalist movement of the Congress and inspired the plan of Complete Freedom and non-Cooperation. Later they were madrasa people who opposed the two-nation theory and creation of Pakistan. They strongly supported the Congress.

“Historically too, madrasas have contributed to the national cause. Graduates from the madrasas as well as the founders of some of the leading Muslim seminaries in India played an important role in the struggle against the British, a fact that is conveniently ignored in India’s school history textbooks. Prominent ulama-led uprisings against the British in the 1857 revolt, and, for decades after, the reformist ulama kept aloft the banner of defiance in the Pathan borderlands till they were forcibly put down by the British. Madrasa teachers and students, such as Maulana Obaidullah Sindhi and Maulana Barkatullah Khan Bhopali were among the first Indians to demand complete freedom for India, at a time when Hindu and Muslim communalist groups were supporting the British. It is a fact, lost to those in the Hindutva crusade as well as the larger populace, that most madrasas vehemently opposed the Muslim League and its two-nation theory, insisting on a united India where people of different faiths could live in harmony.” [4]

This is also an interesting part of our freedom history that madrasa people who are considered poorly educated, less intelligent and forward looking always opposed every disastrous policy of British government while those who are considered to be intelligent and well-educated were trusted loyal to the aliens.

“It is an irony of fate that while the people with western and modern education in the 19th century generally sided with the imperialists and made compromises to accommodate their whims and wishes, the Ulama opposed the policies of British in an uncompromising manner. It is also to be noted that a large number of patriots and leaders who fought for India’s independence came from these religious seminaries, while the modern universities produced many collaborators and officials to run the alien government. Those who could recount every detail of the French revolution, and every part of revolutionary literature, failed to understand the tyrannical nature of imperialism in their own lands. However, those who were termed as half-literate could see the true face of imperialism in the light provided by the Qur’an and Sunnah and confronted it with their entire mite. The contribution of the Indian Ulama to the Islamic awakening in other parts of the world has also been considerable and has been freely acknowledged by the scholars of the Muslim world.” [5]

Promotion of Education

Madrasas are the greatest NGOs in the world that promote education among the people. Madrasas and maktabs offer free education, free board and free books while the government of India yet could not managed to provide children with free education.

“The tradition of opening madaris with the help of voluntary local assistance for the preservation of our cultural identity in the wake of British aggressiveness spread through the subcontinent. At present there are more than 30,000 such non-governmental educational institutions, spread all over the Indian union. This is the largest peoples’ endeavour, on absolutely voluntary basis, in the field of education in history, any where in the world. These madaris do not accept government aid for fear dilution of their character and charter. Their contribution towards mass literacy, theological education and maintenance and deepening of Islamic identity has been incalculable and invaluable. So much has never been achieved in educational history with so little investment as these madaris function with ridiculously low financial resources, collected from the local communities.” [6]

There is, of course, no denying that for many Muslims madrasa education is the alternative to no education. Supported by endowments and charity, madrasas offer much cheaper education than even government schools. Had their not been madrasas the ratio of literacy in Muslim community has been even lower and worse:

“In fact, Siddiqui (S.U. Siddiqui, Director of the government-run Maulana Azad Education Foundation) argues that at the primary school level, Muslim literacy figures are on par with other communities largely because of the access to these schools where children get free food along with education. It is at the middle and high school level that dropout figures become distressingly high. Hamid (Sayyid Hamid, former VC of AMU and present VC of Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi) too believes that with the government school system in a shambles, madrasas are often the only avenue open to the economically backward members of this minority community. “As it is, literacy figures for Muslims are far lower than the national average. Without madrasas they would be even lower,” he says.” [7]

For many poor families, madrasas are the only source of education for their children, since they charge no fees and provide free boarding and lodging to their students. Given what is said to be the dismal level of Muslim access to education, and the marked anti-Muslim bias that has been incorporated into the curricula of government schools, madrasas are often the only available educational option for children from poor Muslim families. Madrasas have thus been playing an important role in promoting literacy among the Muslims, who have the dubious distinction of being, along with Dalits, the least educated community in India. [8] Literary and Academic works

Here is a report from neighbouring Pakistani madrasas that tells us something about the importance and energy that madrasa people have regarding academic works:

“In the past 50 years the people related to Arabic and Islamiat faculties of universities in Pakistan have written about one thousand books, 70% of them are in Urdu and are of no value. On the contrary, the people of madrasas that are run without any help from the government they have written nearly 50 thousand books in Arabic, Persian, English and Urdu. These Ulama who hardly meet with need of their necessities have carried out academic works which is thousand times better than the teachers who get all facilities.” [9]

The situation is not much different in India also. It is the people of madrasas who have translated and wrote all Islamic teachings and books in Urdu that Urdu became the richest literature of Islam after Arabic and Persian. Now if a Urdu knowing student does not know Arabic, it does not matter at all, since he can avail substitute Urdu books. There are only thousands of valuable books that were written by scholars of madrasas. And their countless works in Arabic and Persian also in such a high standard that scholars from Islamic world appreciate and admire:

“Madrasas in India evolved and achieved such a great eminence that Muslim countries of Asia and Africa, virtually the entire Arab world, looked towards them for inspiration and guidance in teaching and practice of religion. Eminent Indian teachers have been held in high regard by scholars in the Islamic world. Not only that, chapters from the curricula of our madrasas were adopted by the institutions of higher learning in Muslim countries.” [10]

“The contribution of the Indian Ulama to the Islamic awakening in other parts of the world has also been considerable and has been freely acknowledged by the scholars of the Muslim world.” [11]

Muslim Leadership

In Pakistan and Afghanistan, madrasas today play a crucial role in national politics. Pakistan has several ‘Ulama-based political parties with millions of supporters. The recent alliance of six religious parties Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) in Pakistan broke the previous records of victory in election. It got comfortable majority in North West Frontier Province (NWFR) and headed a coalition government in Bluchistan while it secured 45 National Assembly seats all across the country. The Taliban regime in neighbouring Afghanistan was entirely Ulama-based, products of Deobandi madrasas in Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province and Baluchistan. In India, the Ulama and their madrasas wield less direct political influence. Nevertheless, there are few Ulama active in Indian politics. Ulama, however, exercise an enormous influence on Muslim public opinion. The massive agitations that India witnessed against what was seen to be an attack on Muslim Personal Law in the 1980s were led principally by the Ulama. The Muslim Personal Law Board, which is considered to be the key spokesman of the Indian Muslims, is also largely in the hands of madrasa leaders. Recently the Uttar Paradesh government introduced a Religious Building Bill, in which it was prohibited to build any religious building and hold religious meeting without prior permission of the district administration. Muslim organizations, especially Jamiatul Ulama Hind, called rallies against the bill in Lucknow and Delhi; the Delhi rally is estimated to have had one million audiences who filled Ram Lila Ground for the first time after independence. Undoubtedly madrasas enjoy enormous support of Muslim masses more than every party and organization.

Role of Madrasas in other Countries

Pakistan's madrasas also offered free board, accommodation and education for hundreds of thousands of local children, mainly boys, from poor families who could not otherwise afford to send their sons to school in a country with a weak public education system. Notably, the madrasas of Pakistan also do not accept any grant from the government and independently run them with the help of charities from Muslim masses. According to Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf in an interview with CNN:

“Actually those who know what is going on in Madrasas would support this point that I'm going to tell you, that this is the biggest welfare organization anywhere in the world is operated today. ---- About 600,000 to 700,000 children of the poor get free board and lodge, and they get free education.” [12]

“The madrasas unthinkably give free education, training, lodging and food to 17,00,000 students of the country. On the contrary, the government schools educate only 16,00,000 after spending huge amounts that go beyond billions of rupees…. They do neither offer free education nor free lodge and food. The products of government institutions are useless in practical life. Having spent billions of rupees the government supplies a generation of unemployed youths every year.” [13] Likewise, madrasas in Bangladesh and Indonesia also provide education to a large number of children that the local government may not be able to provide, especially free of cost:

“Muslim scholars in Bangladesh share a similar sentiment. There is no doubt that the madrasas are the main source of education for a large number of children in the country. These institutions exist in remote villages, even where neither formal nor non-formal education has reached. Education under this system is free.” [14]

“Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim country, has many thousands of religious schools, including boarding schools known as pesantrens. These schools have come to play an even more important role in national education in the past few years as an economic slump and shortage of government funds have undermined the public school system.” [15]